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Where have you visited on a cruise that you would return for a Land-only vacation?


TeeRick
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We love visiting National Parks, so if cruising continues not to be an option we’ll do more of that.  We’d also love to return to Hawaii and see more than we were able to see on our cruise, including islands we didn’t get to. We’ve never been to Iceland on a cruise, but plan to visit it as a land vacation.  

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9 minutes ago, Miss Vickie said:

I hope you can help. We’re booked on a cruise in 2021 with a stop in Sarande.  That was one of the reasons we chose that particular itinerary. However, I’m not getting responses from any tour operators I’ve contacted. Who did you use?  Thanks!

 

Hi -- we (my friend and I) also had some trouble locating a good guide for the site as we wanted more than just a casual tour. We eventually located two guides that were both well recommended. One is Dr. Ols Lafe, but he is in demand for other sites too and is based in Durres, so he may or may not be available.

 

Dr. Ols Lafe

Director
Center for the Development of Ancient and Medieval Albanian Heritage
University "Aleksandër Moisiu" 
L.1, Rruga e Currilave, Durrës, Albania

Email: olslafe@uamd.edu.al
Email: olslafe@hotmail.com

 

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, given the results) he was not available for our date, but he recommended to us someone who had actually excavated at the site, and works there as the Supervisor of Finds. Her name is Erjona Qilla and I cannot stress how DELIGHTFUL she was as a guide. We had a slight hitch in the morning and had to shorten our tour (which was originally to include some of the outlying sites -- Butrint is quite huge), but in the end we had a thorough tour of the area within the archaeological park, including more than a few things not on the regular tours. 

 

Erjona Qilla
Archaeologist
Butrint National Park
Saranda, Albania
erjona.qilla@gmail.com

rona_al@yahoo.ca

 

I think you would be more than happy with either of these as your guide. Our tour with her was on May 24, 2018. If you contact her please say hello from Jo Ann and Cynthia.

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The only place that I can think of is Malta. We first visited on a cruise. Although I (I,m the planner!) had thought about it, we had never gone there before.  So,, one March, instead of cruising, we spent about 3 weeks in Malta. I must say that for the most part we found it cold (and we are from Canada, which of course is colder!). It was really funny, because some days we wore our winter jackets, scarves, etc. There were many Brits vacationing there...and they were in shorts!  I couldn't believe it!! (Maybe one of you can explain this phenomenon to me!!) But we did love Malta and would return  in a warmer month!  We were at the Westin and loved it.

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1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Hi -- we (my friend and I) also had some trouble locating a good guide for the site as we wanted more than just a casual tour. We eventually located two guides that were both well recommended. One is Dr. Ols Lafe, but he is in demand for other sites too and is based in Durres, so he may or may not be available.

 

Dr. Ols Lafe

Director
Center for the Development of Ancient and Medieval Albanian Heritage
University "Aleksandër Moisiu" 
L.1, Rruga e Currilave, Durrës, Albania

Email: olslafe@uamd.edu.al
Email: olslafe@hotmail.com

 

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, given the results) he was not available for our date, but he recommended to us someone who had actually excavated at the site, and works there as the Supervisor of Finds. Her name is Erjona Qilla and I cannot stress how DELIGHTFUL she was as a guide. We had a slight hitch in the morning and had to shorten our tour (which was originally to include some of the outlying sites -- Butrint is quite huge), but in the end we had a thorough tour of the area within the archaeological park, including more than a few things not on the regular tours. 

 

Erjona Qilla
Archaeologist
Butrint National Park
Saranda, Albania
erjona.qilla@gmail.com

rona_al@yahoo.ca

 

I think you would be more than happy with either of these as your guide. Our tour with her was on May 24, 2018. If you contact her please say hello from Jo Ann and Cynthia.

Thank you for your response!

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On 6/27/2020 at 5:52 PM, chemmo said:

Great post! 

 

If we need to stay in the U.K. we are totally spoilt for choice...Within a two hour drive from almost any spot you will hit natural wonders, historical treasures, fine dining (once opened) and diverse but always welcoming people. If any of you reading haven’t yet visited the U.K. start researching!!!

 

USA,  we have done several US tours and would love to do a few more. Our routes tend to zig zag between national parks...When we replay videos of Yellowstone, Zion, Grand Canyon we immediately think of those small towns we also stopped at on the way where we were always greeted with smiles and appreciation of our accent!

 

World wide we loved South East Asia, particularly a small area in Phuket (Thailand) called Cape Panwa...We also had a full tour of New Zealand on our agenda having experienced parts of North Island on our Trans Pacific cruise...

 

Thinking about places to visit/revisit reminds me once more about the beauty of cruising...The first time you enter a port you visit the obvious highlights, on a second visit you have the luxury of enjoying the cuisine or the art and craft of the area, visit a third time and you can just sit back and savour the experience....

 

Thanks again for a great post!

We live on the coast but also within 30 mins to the Lake District, Must say from cruises we went back time after time to Italy with the kids, so lucky where we live ! But Italy still is my favourite place, Tuscany, Rome and of course Venice.Who could not love a land trip in these places! 

 

 

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Great topic!!!
 

I never want to return to the same place twice as there are so many places in the world to see BUT

I’d totally revisit Maldives, Iceland & Antartica !!  And just Recently returned from Galapagos.......totally would go back there too!!

 

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15 hours ago, Fouremco said:

For the best part of my life, I have lived near the ocean, and during those times when I've had to live inland, as I do now, one ocean or another has been an integral part of holidays. I too have taken being by the sea for granted, but not this year. John Masefield's Sea Fever keeps running through my mind. "I must go down to the seas again..."


I love that poem and have since childhood.
 

Given its size, nowhere in the UK is too far from the sea - we’re about 20 miles away - but I’m off to do some research on St Andrews by the sea right now because we are due another visit to Canada 🤞.  We have friends in Orillia and Ottawa and combine our visits with other places in Canada.

 

Still enjoying the thread!

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18 hours ago, Miss Vickie said:

We love visiting National Parks, so if cruising continues not to be an option we’ll do more of that.  We’d also love to return to Hawaii and see more than we were able to see on our cruise, including islands we didn’t get to. We’ve never been to Iceland on a cruise, but plan to visit it as a land vacation.  

We were supposed to be in Iceland on a cruise (Reflection) this week for our 40th wedding anniversary.  Of course cancelled.  We have now decided to go there for perhaps a week or even two weeks on a land-based tour.  It is too beautiful to rush through it on a short cruise.  So we are actively planning and looking at land-driving tours.  Looking for recommendations.

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Last year a cruise brought us to Ajaccio at Corse - I really would like to come back and explore more.

 

Places I have been on a cruise and do not want to return? Maybe Costanza in Romania - it was not a nice experience. Very poor and dilapidated - quite depressing.

 

This summer?  I will "just" stay in Denmark - we are having many nice places here - so it will be good to explore my own country a bit more. We are having amazing beaches and nice landscapes.

 

Next cruise?  No idea - I hope next year, but it depend, how the cruise lines are going to operate in the future.   I was crusing in the Caribbean Sea in March, when the whole cruising closed down. I love to cruise, but I can also see things, that need to be changed in the future to make cruising safe again.

 

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20 hours ago, Travelexpert35 said:


We love it here in St Andrews by the Sea and we have a membership to use the pools and fitness centre at the Algonquin Resort. I hope you get to visit us soon.

 

Our house is right on the water so I’m not missing cruising yet.

So, if the Algonquin's full, you'll be happy to put us up?

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5 hours ago, TeeRick said:

We were supposed to be in Iceland on a cruise (Reflection) this week for our 40th wedding anniversary.  Of course cancelled.  We have now decided to go there for perhaps a week or even two weeks on a land-based tour.  It is too beautiful to rush through it on a short cruise.  So we are actively planning and looking at land-driving tours.  Looking for recommendations.

We were on the Reflection for an Ireland/Iceland cruise last year. We took four tours with Saga and were very impressed with them. Their small group tour leaders really know their stuff! 
We’d love to return for a much longer land trip someday! 

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25 minutes ago, MamaFej said:

We were on the Reflection for an Ireland/Iceland cruise last year. We took four tours with Saga and were very impressed with them. Their small group tour leaders really know their stuff! 
We’d love to return for a much longer land trip someday! 

 

I was impressed with them also, but not in a good way.  They took our money for tours for this year over a year in advance which were allegedly fully refundable if cancelled in advance and then went bankrupt, leaving us holding the bag.  Obviously, they were using that money to finance their current operations.  A few have reported success with filing chargebacks with their credit card companies.  Capital One refused mine.  Needless to say, I won't be doing business with Capital One again and have withdrawn the substantial deposits I had in its bank.

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We were supposed to be in Iceland on a cruise (Reflection) this week for our 40th wedding anniversary.  Of course cancelled.  We have now decided to go there for perhaps a week or even two weeks on a land-based tour.  It is too beautiful to rush through it on a short cruise.  So we are actively planning and looking at land-driving tours.  Looking for recommendations.

 

We based ourselves in Reykjavik for a week and did different day trip minibus tours every day. Did research and we used different tour operators for different tours. We didn’t use the same company twice. Lot of reviews on TripAdvisor. The tour operators pick up at all the hotels. Stayed at Fosshótel Reykjavík which I recommend. They have a buffet breakfast which was included and there is a crafty type beer garden in the basement. We used the concierge to get us dinner reservations. Food is expensive there so if you are going to spend a lot for dinner anyway might as well spend a little more and get great food. Iceland is a fishing nation so all the fish served are caught the same day. They also raise sheep for wool so the other food to eat is lamb. If I was staying two weeks I would do the second week in the north and stay at a Fosshotel there. Some people rent cars and driving would be easy I think but without guides we would have missed out a lot of local knowledge. All the guides we had from the different tour companies were brilliant.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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12 hours ago, TeeRick said:

We were supposed to be in Iceland on a cruise (Reflection) this week for our 40th wedding anniversary.  Of course cancelled.  We have now decided to go there for perhaps a week or even two weeks on a land-based tour.  It is too beautiful to rush through it on a short cruise.  So we are actively planning and looking at land-driving tours.  Looking for recommendations.

I’ll be following for recommendations, too.  We’ve gotten as far in our planning as basing ourselves in Reykjavik and renting a car. Exactly where we’ll be going is yet to be determined.

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We stopped in Sardinia on an Azamara cruise last year, and I'd love to go back there for a land vacation.  We stopped in Mallorca on the same cruise, and I did great hike there--a couple days to do more hiking and exploring would be great, too.

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16 hours ago, TeeRick said:

We were supposed to be in Iceland on a cruise (Reflection) this week for our 40th wedding anniversary.  Of course cancelled.  We have now decided to go there for perhaps a week or even two weeks on a land-based tour.  It is too beautiful to rush through it on a short cruise.  So we are actively planning and looking at land-driving tours.  Looking for recommendations.

 

Congratulations on your 40th wedding anniversary, it is ours in a couple of weeks. We had the PH booked on Silhouette to celebrate...Instead we are taking our touring caravan into Wales...Maybe not as glamorous, no dining out or butler service but we will be together!

 

Re Iceland, Jane McDonald did a cruise just around Iceland on a former ferry called Ocean Diamond (series 2 episode 2). Reykjavik to Reykjavik so easy to add as part of a land tour. Obviously they did trips off at different points and certainly saw more of the wild side of the country. Could be a good option for you, she also saw the aurora borealis...Not done this but I saved the episode as it is something we may consider.

 

Again congratulations on your anniversary, hope you have the champagne on ice!

 

 

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18 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

 

We based ourselves in Reykjavik for a week and did different day trip minibus tours every day. Did research and we used different tour operators for different tours. We didn’t use the same company twice. Lot of reviews on TripAdvisor. The tour operators pick up at all the hotels. Stayed at Fosshótel Reykjavík which I recommend. They have a buffet breakfast which was included and there is a crafty type beer garden in the basement. We used the concierge to get us dinner reservations. Food is expensive there so if you are going to spend a lot for dinner anyway might as well spend a little more and get great food. Iceland is a fishing nation so all the fish served are caught the same day. They also raise sheep for wool so the other food to eat is lamb. If I was staying two weeks I would do the second week in the north and stay at a Fosshotel there. Some people rent cars and driving would be easy I think but without guides we would have missed out a lot of local knowledge. All the guides we had from the different tour companies were brilliant.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Thank you for the helpful info!

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6 hours ago, chemmo said:

 

Congratulations on your 40th wedding anniversary, it is ours in a couple of weeks. We had the PH booked on Silhouette to celebrate...Instead we are taking our touring caravan into Wales...Maybe not as glamorous, no dining out or butler service but we will be together!

 

Re Iceland, Jane McDonald did a cruise just around Iceland on a former ferry called Ocean Diamond (series 2 episode 2). Reykjavik to Reykjavik so easy to add as part of a land tour. Obviously they did trips off at different points and certainly saw more of the wild side of the country. Could be a good option for you, she also saw the aurora borealis...Not done this but I saved the episode as it is something we may consider.

 

Again congratulations on your anniversary, hope you have the champagne on ice!

 

 

Thank you and congrats on your anniversary too!  

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Great topic.  I was wondering this the other day as we have been to so many places and have talked about whether or not we would go back for a longer stay.

 

In a twist to the topic, Guernsey (and Jersey) are places that I've been on holiday, but I simply can't imagine going to for only a day on a ship.   There is so much to see and do that can't be done justice in a single day.  I've spent nearly a month collectively in the Channel Islands and still have plenty on my list that I've yet to do.   

 

 

 

 

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On 6/30/2020 at 10:53 AM, DrKoob said:

 

Thanks Phil I knew they had a collective name. Another tip. When you are there and are eating in a restaurant, make sure you have Guernsey butter on your bread. It comes from Guernsey cows and it is the BEST BUTTER I have ever had. I can almost still taste. We loved it so much we could have just eaten the bread and butter for lunch. 

 

One more thing. Before you go read, "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." It's the story of how these islands (so close to Britain) were occupied by Nazi forces in WWII and how the islanders organized their own type of resistance. There is a movie as well but the book is outstanding.

 

On 7/1/2020 at 1:35 AM, excitedofharpenden said:

Guernsey (and Jersey) butter is indeed delicious. As are the cream teas.  My mum was brought up on a farm and they had some Jersey cattle. She used to say to me that they had a lovely gentle character. 

 

Phil 

 

Technically, the term "Guernsey Islands" could also refer to the islands that comprise the Bailiwick of Guernsey, of which Guernsey is only one.  Sark, Alderney, Herm being the largest of the others with many smaller islands in the bailiwick.  Administratively, things get a bit confusing as the entire bailiwick isn't centrally governed. Sark and Alderney have their own governments which are substantially independent of the States of Guernsey.   Make sense? :) 

 

And the dairy is to die for!  Soem toasted Guernsey Gache with some Guernsey butter.   Then some Guernsey ice cream or maybe a cream tea in the afternoon... or both.... delicious!!

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